foolishness of preaching-some by the foolishness of conversation; some are trained by holy nurture; some are struck as by fire from heaven in mid-career of wickedness; some are visited by the 'heavenly vision' in their closing hours; but every way Christ is preached, and sinful hearts are won to repentance, to God, to prayer, to piety in all lands; a multitude that no man can number, by the power of this ascended, this unchangeable Jesus. He is making his power felt more and more throughout all the concentric spheres of human life, through all the worlds around us, in the world of thought, in the world of art, in the world of literature, in the world of science, in the world of commerce, in the world of government, in the world of religious belief. There is nothing which is steadily and victoriously in the ascension except Christianity. All systems

of thought are waxing old, and are ready to vanish away; or they are destroying each other. There is positively no one person to whom the world seems likely to bow down before long but Jesus Christ. He is not dead.' 'Behold his empty tomb.' 'He is risen,' as He said; come see the 'power of his resurrection' in these wonders of grace around us.

And though ascended upon high, he is the same Jesus to his servants now that he was when on earth in the midst of the apostles. He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Does he not show the same patience with beginners that he showed to Peter, and James, and John? If they are 'slow of heart to believe,' He is still slower to anger. Does he not exercise a most wonderful and affectionate providence over the ideas and knowledge of his disciples? teaching us here a little, and there a little,' as we are able to bear it,' until the scepticism of youth ends in the deep persuasion of maturity, and we cry out to the Church, Now, we believe not because of thy saying, for we have seen Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.'

Does he not still delight in teaching the teachable, in imparting special revelations to willing learners, in explaining all things secretly to his disciples? Does he not still fulfil his promise of 'coming to sup' with those who keep his loving words, and embody true thoughts in holy actions? At many an Emmaus, while the lamp of holy fellowship beams down upon sorrowful companions, does he not make himself known to us in the breaking of bread,' while the familiar features shine forth upon us through the gloom? And does he not oftentimes make our hearts to burn within us, we ponder the word of prophecy, with a fire which we are very conscious could not exist, even as a spark, if Christ were not truly 'risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept ? Yes, it is the same Jesus' who is within the veil.' And he is there, what he was below, the soul of comfort, the Comforter of all who are cast down ;' the very same that he was when John 'be

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held his glory,' full of grace and truth. How much he loved children then! Beside the fords of the Jordan, the young mothers brought their babes to Him, entreating Him to lay his hands on them, and pray for them,' and 'bless them.' The Apostles considered this levee of infancy, with its cries and tears, an unseemly intrusion on the majestic progress of Him who, they thought, was going up to Jerusalem to take the kingdom. And Jesus was * much displeased-hear it-dwell upon it-think of it; the true man, the true God, broke through the contemptible apostolic decorum and stateliness. He was much displeased;' He was exceedingly angry with all his church dignitaries,' and said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' The feeblest of beings was folded in the arms of the Mightiest. 'He carried the lambs in his arms.' laid his hands upon them and blessed them; and Christ never blessed without reality. What he was on this occasion, such he was always. His soul always cleaved to little children. More than once he took a child and set him in the midst of his quarrelsome Apostles. And at his final entrance into the holy city, he heartily welcomed the chorus of young voices who greeted the advent of the Word made flesh, when the Scribes and the Pharisees, and the stocks and the stones were silent. And he is the same on high, no doubt. Those arms are still outstretched to receive the spirit,' not only of Stephen, but of the dying child, into his glory; and the same voice welcomes the multitude of infant souls which pass away; 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.'

He

Once near the shores of Gennesaret, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue; and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought Him that he would come into his house; for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, 'Thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master.' But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not; believe only, and she shall be made whole. And all wept and bewailed her, but he said, Weep not! she is not dead but sleepeth. And he put them all out, and suffered no man to go in save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and mother of the maiden (five witnesses). And he took her by the hand, and called saying, Maid, arise! And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway. And her parents were astonished.'-Trouble not the Master!' It is no trouble to him to bind up the broken-hearted. He is the 'same Jesus' still. His pleasure is in the relief of pain. He who once visited the maiden's bier, and called for her soul from the depths of Hades, now comforts us by the assurance that her spirit is in a region whence not even parental affection could desire that it come again.' The same Jesus who once bent over the

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marble face of the young sleeper, beautiful in death, and poured the flush of life over her wakening countenance as he took her cold hand in his own, now bids us believe that it is 'far better' to be with Him there now speaks to us of the 'exit which He accomplished at Jerusalem,' and assures us that the same love for children, and especially the children of grace, warms his kind heart in the skies, as when he comforted Jairus below; persuades us to still the voice of weeping by the assurance that the scene of the transfiguration is transferred to the third heaven, and that the spirit of the maiden is near Him, beneath the overshadowing glory. 'Father, I will, that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.'

It is no 'cunningly devised fable' that Jesus will restore the lost, and re-unite the broken threads of human affection. He delivered him to his mother; He commanded to give her meat;' Lazarus was one of those who sat at meat with him.' Vast may be the distance which now divides us-cold and awful the gaping chasm of death-but there is a power which pervades all nature and unites all worlds more effectually than light or gravitation, and that is 'the love of Christ which passeth knowledge;' and that love will never rest until, in the resurrection, hearts that had been torn asunder on earth shall be conjoined for ever in the family of heaven. Jesus still stands at the mouth of every tomb, and says, I am the resurrection and the life, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' 'Wherefore comfort one another with these words.'

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Believest thou this? A man's life is determined by his views of the unseen. Is the world revealed at the Transfiguration a reality to us or not? Is our daily life a journey towards an unknown darkness, or to a well-known home? There is nothing which can make that world seem real or delightful except the presence of Jesus of Nazareth there. Astronomy reveals no secrets of the distant heaven. No telescope can magnify the star-points that glitter in the cold firmament, or read in them a revelation for the soul of man on the walls of eternity. No Plato can pierce the thick darkness, or open a way into the holiest.' The combined speculation of all ages on the invisible and future has not thrown one ray of light upon that gloom. One single door opens in heaven. It is that door through which Jesus Christ entered into heaven itself; when for us Christ took 'a journey into that far country, to receive for Himself a kingdom, and to return.' If we are one with Him now, we shall ascend to Him when we die. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin, and through that blood of sprinkling, we have boldness to enter into the holiest.' To Him, then, with full purpose of heart, in joy, and in sorrow, in life and death, let us cleave, and 'so shall we ever be with the Lord.'

W.

THE CHRISTIAN

BROTHERS:

A STORY OF THE PROTESTANTS BEFORE THE REFORMATION.

IN THREE PARTS.

PART I.

Great national revolutions, however eventually accomplished, have been uniformly preceded by certain tendencies of thought or sentiment, which have determined the character of the change, and rendered it, in one or another shape, inevitable. As the flush and flowerage of the spring-time is the result of silent forces working invisibly through winter days, so is the consummation of memorable epochs in human history the product of the unseen vigour of ideas that have taken possession of the souls of men sufficiently earnest and sincere to be open to their influence. Christianity was a private faith long before it was an established religion; and the Protestantism of the sixteenth century had many witnesses and martyrs ere it took its final, and historical development.

In England, there were various movements indicating dissatisfaction with the false teachings, and corrupt practices of the Roman Catholic Church, which, to an eye that could have perceived the direction they were taking, might have suggested the ultimate downfall of the Papal system, and the establishment of a more pure and perfect form of faith and doctrine. At the close of the fourteenth century, there was a quarrel with the Pope upon the extent of the Papal privileges, which gave origin to the sect called 'Lollards,' and which ended in curtailing sundry habits of exaction and extortion, to which the English Church was subjected by the Papal See. About the same time there sprung up an agitation touching the too great worldliness and self-indulgence among the English clergy, which found its exponent and representative in the celebrated Wycliffe, who attempted to bring back the priesthood to a simpler and holier style of living than the one to which they had been latterly accustomed. Growing out of these movements, or some way connected with them, were the insurrections of Wat Tyler and Sir John Oldcastle; both of which were failures, and the suppression of which, no doubt, tended to stop the current of innovation upon ecclesiastical abuses. The sect which Wycliffe organized, and the special doctrines which he taught, sank after a brief demonstration of success into apparent darkness; and for a century afterward the old Church went on its way not materially troubled or affected by any newer forms of 'heresy.' Yet, as seed that is sown, though long buried and untraceable, shoots up in its appointed season, and covers the bare ground with its verdure, so, after a dull

protracted period of seeming lifelessness, the doctrines that had been sown broadcast, and which were thought to have perished, sprung up with an unexpected vigour, and overspread the land from which it had been fancied they were extirpated. It is of this new outbursting of religious power and enthusiasm that we here propose to give a rapid and general representation.

About the year 1525, in the reign of Henry VIII., a secret society was enrolled in London, calling itself The Association of Christian Brothers.' It was composed of poor men, chiefly tradesmen, artisans, and a few of the humbler clergy; but it was carefully organized, was provided with moderate funds, regularly audited; and it had its paid agents, who went up and down the country carrying Testaments and tracts with them, and enrolling in the order all persons who dared to risk their lives in such a cause. Many had already suffered for the opinions and objects which the society entertained. The records of the bishops' courts are filled from the beginning of the century with accounts of prosecutions for heresy-with prosecutions, that is, of men and women to whom the masses, the pilgrimages, the indulgences, the pardons, the effete paraphernalia of the establishment, had become intolerable; who had risen up in blind resistance, and had declared with passionate anger, that whatever was the truth, all this was falsehood. The bishops had plied their busy task with stake and prison, and victim after victim had been executed with unrelenting cruelty. But all this severity was in vain; punishment only multiplied offenders, and the reek of the martyrs, as it was said, infected all it blew upon.

There were no regular teachers, however, there was no unity of conviction-only a confused refusal to believe in lies. Copies of Wycliffe's Bible remained, which groups of people met here and there to read-under penalty of death, if they happened to be detected. But until the date of the association of Christian Brothers the Protestants had been isolated, unorganized, and without knowledge of each other; with nothing whatever to give them coherency as a party. It was the news of Luther's contest with the Papal power in Germany which at length aroused them to a full sense of their position, and suggested to them the need of some form or plan of union. To Wittenberg, as to a shrine-temple of newly revealed radiance and light, students from all nations flocked to hear the passionate burning oratory of the great unconquerable 'heretic'; and among them went from England the pure-minded and aspiring William Tyndal; a man,' says one, whose history is lost in his work, and whose epitaph is the Reformation.' Of him, as an important figure in the English movement, it will be needful to say a passing word.

Beginning life as an Oxford student, he early found himself at